Weekly Announcements for Week of 9/2-9/8

Dear SBSC families,

Practice Schedule

RHS Practice Groups

Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:00-7:00

G1 Elite Wednesday 5:30-7:00

Group 2 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5:30-7:00
Group 3 mornings Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5:30-7:00 AM

Group 3 evenings Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday  4:15-5:45 PM

NPHS Practice Groups

Group 1 Tuesday and Thursday 6:00-7:00 CST

Group 2&3 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5:30-7:00 CST

Practice Notes:

Registration Errors and Reminders

Due to a couple of errors I made during the registration set-up a few families were undercharged.  This will primarily affect families who choose New Prairie training groups and registered prior to August 20th.  Also, Indiana Swimming sent a notice after our registration was set up they would be raising the cost of the USA Swimming membership.  If you registered on or before August 11th you were undercharged $4.  All corrections will be made to your accounts by the end of the week.  You can check your account balance and if you have any questions let me know.

Also, the link to the USA Swimming form was one from previous seasons.  Please use the attached form and bring to your swimmer's first practice this week.  If you are a new family I will need you to bring a copy of their birth certificate as well.  Copies can be made here at the pool.  If it is easier for you, please feel free to scan either or both of the documents and email them to me.

During the registration process you were asked a question regarding your athlete being eligible for the free/reduced lunch program.  If you answered yes to this question you will need to provide documentation from the school stating their eligibility. 

Fall Registration is Now OPEN

Our on-line registration platform is up and running.  Please remember all swimmers must re-register every fall.  Here is the link to our registration page.  Practice starts Tuesday!. If you know you are going to be part of the club this season please register as soon as you can.

2 Free T-shirts

We are offering a chance for parents to win two of this season's T-shirts.  If you share our our registration post from the South Bend Swim Club's Facebook page to your page you will be entered in a drawing to win the free shirts.  Here is a direct link to our Facebook page.  Thank you to all of you have already shared and continue to share this post.  As of this morning the post has been shared 133 times! Every little bit helps.

Swimming In College Opportunities

Recently Bethel College has approved the starting of a competitive swim program at their school.  I met with their coach, Deb Thompson, on Friday and she is very eager to recruit kids locally.  There is scholarship and grant money available at the NAIA level that isn't at the D1 schools.  If your swimmer is looking to stay locally for college this might be a great opportunity.

I received an email from an old coaching colleague, Jim Sheridan, who has accepted a new position at Greensboro College in North Carolina.  This is a D3 school that in Coach Sheridan's words, " there is lots of academic money to be had here".  To be honest I know next to nothing about the academics or the reputation of this school.  But, I have known Coach Sheridan for nearly 20 years and I would not hesitate to send my own children to learn under him.  If your swimmer is looking for something different academically and a chance to continue to improve their swimming this may be worth considering.  Here is a link to their school.  Coach Sheridan's email address is james.sheridan@greensboro.edu

***Parents, please do not email college coaches for your swimmer.  If your swimmer is interested please have them contact the coach.  It is a red flag for college coaches when parents act on behalf of their children in this way.  Colleges are looking for athletes that show initiative and independence.

Changes For The Fall/Winter Season

As most of you know by now the South Bend School Corporation has altered their school day.  This has caused us a little concern regarding scheduling of our club's practices this season.  We are committed to being as family friendly as we possibly can.  At this point, we have no plans of changing our Group 1 or Group 2 practice times.  Again, there will not be any changes to our practice schedule for Group 1 or Group 2.

We will be experiencing some changes for our Group 3.  Practice start times will begin at 4:15.  I realize this may cause some problems for our swimmers who attend SBCSC high schools other then Riley, but it really is the only viable option I see.  Those athletes will of course be excused for being late and will be welcomed to practice whenever the are able to arrive.  Also, the longest practice we have will last until 6:30.  So over the course of the fall the Group 3 boys swimmers will loose just 4.75 hours of practice and the girls will only loose 2.75 hours when comparing to previous seasons.

To offset any loss of PM practice time and to take advantage of the later start time we will be offering morning workouts this fall for Group 3.  The plan is to offer morning workouts from 5:30-7:00 Monday-Thursday.  This should allow all of our athletes who attend other high schools ample to time to get to there school before 1st period begins.  The Riley HS team will still have their pre-season weight training from 7:15-8:15.  This will give the Group 3 girl swimmers the opportunity for an additional 28.5 hours of practice and the boys will have and extra 40.5 hours throughout the fall.

Email Change

This will be the last weekly email that is sent from my personal account.  Beginning next week, the week of September 10th, emails will be sent through the administrative dashboard of our website. Please make sure your email address is up to date on your swim club account page.  This is still the best email address to use to contact me.

Advertising Credit 

A Group 2 or Group 3 annual membership plus all the other associated fees with our membership -- spirit wear, meet surcharges, technology fees, concession stand/hospitality fees, USA Swimming-- is just under $550 for an entire year. (A Group 1 annual membership is about $100 less.)  If you were able to sell two of the Premiere+ adds it could easily pay for a whole year of swimming including meet entry fees!

Selling a one year ad to one company could earn you anywhere from $50 to almost $500. Here is the link for more information. 

Another easy way to earn credit for your swim club account is to hang our recruiting posters out in the public. For every poster you hang you will receive a $5 credit up to $25. Once you hang the poster post a pic of it on your Facebook page (or other social site) and tag the club.

Fall and Winter Meet Schedule

Below is our fall/winter meet schedule.  Swimmers wanting to compete will need to commit to those meets.  The deadlines are based on deadlines that were set last year. They may change once the meet hosts posts the meet information.  When committing to multiple day meets please leave a message in the available notes section of what days you would like to attend. Meets marked with an * are meets that require swimmers to meet certain time standards.  All pool locations can be found on our website under the "Pools" tab

SBSC Intra-Squad/Tuesday October 2nd/Riley High School/Monday 10-1

NCISC Fall Sprint Meet/Saturday October 6th/Tuesday 10-2

Dual Vs. CON/Saturday October 13th/Concord High School/Tuesday 10-9

NASA Sprint Meet/Saturday & Sunday Nov. 3rd and 4th/Northridge High School/Sunday 10-14

SWAC Prelims-Finals/Friday-Sunday Nov. 16th-18th/HPB Natatorium, Ft. Wayne/Sunday 10-21

LCB Winter Blast/Friday-Sunday Nov.30th-Dec.2nd/Sunday 10-28

DUNE Rumble/Saturday December 15th/Chesterton High School/Sunday 11-11

IA TW Invite/Friday-Sunday Jan. 4th-6th/Notre Dame/Sunday 10-28

MSC 11 & Over/Saturday Jan. 26th/Munster High School/Sunday 1-6

MSC 10 & Under/Sunday Jan. 27th/Munster High School/Sunday 1-6

NCISC Champs/Saturday February 9th/Riley High School/Sunday 2-3

CON Last Chance/Friday-Sunday Feb. 22nd-24th/Concord High School/Sunday 1-27

*IN Divisional Champs/Friday-Sunday Mar. 1st-3rd/TBD/Sunday 2-17

*IN Age Group State/Friday-Sunday Mar. 8th-10th/IUPUI/Sunday 3-3

*IN Senior State/Friday-Sunday Mar. 15th-17th/TBD/Sunday 3-3

*Speedo Sectionals/Thursday-Sunday Mar. 28th-31st/IUPUI/Sunday 3-10

As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.